What my musings are all about...

Blogging might well be the 21st century's form of journaling. As a writing teacher, I have always advised my students to keep a daily journal as a way of organizing their thoughts for future writing projects, a discipline I have unfortunately never consistently practiced myself. By blogging, I might finally be able to follow my own good advice.

The difference between journaling and blogging is that the blogger opens his or her writing to the public, something journal- writers are usually reluctant to do. I am not so reticent.

The trick for me will be to avoid cluttering the internet with more blather, something none of us need more of. If I stick to subjects I know: sports and literature, I believe I can avoid that pitfall. I can't promise that I'll not stray from time to time to comment on ancillary subjects, but I will make every attempt to be interesting and perhaps even insightful.

Friday, June 24, 2011

The Draft

Yesterday, I said I'd have more to say about the 2011 Draft after a little time to think about it. Well, I've thought about it and can't say there's much to get excited about.

I'll start with our Warriors. Klay Thompson is a strong pick, a deadly shooting guard who can, by all accounts, play defense. Add to that second round pick Charles Jenkins a two guard from Hofstra, some pundits have described as having a lethal shooting touch. Looks like the Warriors have created an effective and perhaps powerful guard rotation. Is it possible Thompson can play some at the three? What's left is the same front court: Biedrens, Lee, Udoah. Unless Biedrens can achieve a magical turnaround and Udoah find some offensive and rebounding skills, David Lee is left hanging out there all by his lonesome as the only consistent power player and, as some have suggested, Lee is not as tough from the four as he was playing the 5 with the Knicks. The addition of Jeremy Tyler, a 6'10" 250 19 year old project is what it is - a project. Worth $2 mil? Maybe. Ed Ziti writing for Hoops Daily seems to believe Tyler has an upside worth the risk and the bucks. He cites Tyler's wingspan of 7'5", which sounds highly doubtful to me. He couldn't cut it playing in Israel and quit. His effort was better in Japan. Hmm, what's the average size of Japanese players?
Ah, well, I'm being a bit snarky. We wish for all players the opportunity to reach their potential. Let's remember the history of Kwame Brown and Tyson Chandler. Chandler made it, Brown was a bust. That's a 50/50 model. Let's hope Jeremy takes the path of Chandler. When all is said and done, the Warriors still have a huge hole in their power positions, and I don't care what Jeff Van Gundy says about the NBA becoming a perimeter league, no team will win a championship without strength, length, and depth in the paint. So, Warriors, put on your thinking caps. You need a Rudy LaRusso, a Maurice Lucas type player badly.

How did the other teams fare?

I still believe the Cavs screwed up not taking Derrick Williams. I'm convinced they could have landed Kyrie Irving anyway with their fourth pick. Tristan Thompson is a solid player, but they have a few of his kind of the team already.

The Timberwolves helped themselves with Derick Williams. Williams and Love will be a solid 3 and 4 combo. If Rubio pans out, they will be a much better team. I'd still trade Beasely.

Oh, if only Jerry Sloan hadn't quit. I just know about Corbin as a coach. But let's give him the benefit of the doubt and say he and the Jazz (Wouldn't it be nice if the Jazz and Hornets traded names?) improved their team considerably. Enes Kantor could be an instant success, and Alec Burks by all accounts is a guy who can score in bunches.

Charlote has a team leader in Kemba Walker, and if Bismark Biyambo proves to be the shot blocker and rebounder he's purported to be, the Bobcats will be an improved club. Getting rid of a poison guy like Steven Jackson was a smart move. Not they have to light a fire under Diaw.

The Sacramento Kings have a chance of making the playoff if Jimmer Fredette is the NBA caliber player I think he is. (I love gym rats.) The Kings three guard rotations of Thorton, Evans, and Fredette looks lethal to me, especially if Evans can improve his outside shot. As a team a lot hinges on the continued development of DeMarcus Cousins who looked at the end of the season as if he was coming along nicely. Add to that mix a bona fide 3 shooting forward in UCLA's Hunicutt and you have all the positions and backups covered. Isiah Thomas? Another JJ Barea? Probably more a Muggsy Bogues.

Phoenix and Houston are plus on my board because I think the Morris twins will be solid contributors out of the gate. Houston may have a sleeper in Donatas Motiejunas.

I think Philadelphia helped themselves a lot by drafting Nicola Vucevic of USC. I was hoping the Warriors would take a shot at him.

The Washington Wizards will be better defensively with the addition of Chris Singleton and better offensively with Jan Vesely, so they helped themselves.

The pundits were raving about Kenneth Faried as the rebounder of the century. Can't shoot a lick, so he better rebound. I doubt if Denver helped themselves there unless they feel they're going to lose Nene.

That's all folks. The rest of the teams may or may not have helped themselves. Good luck to all. What I love to see are the guys the brain trusts missed who in the summer get a look, make the tryouts and stick. Let's think good thoughts for the underdogs, the forgotten, and leftovers of the draft.

Was it a good draft year? Most of the pundits said only average. I think it will turn out in the end a good one. My hope is that this years incoming NBA players clear out some of the awful deadwood filling out rosters the last few years.

I found this wonderful poem about Moses Malone. Wouldn't teams love to have had a Malone in this draft?
Raise your hand if you remember the Stars of Utah?

In Memory of the Utah Stars by William Matthews

Each of them must have terrified
his parents by being so big, obsessive
and exact so young, already gone
and leaving, like a big tipper,
that huge changeling's body in his place.
The prince of bone spurs and bad knees.

The year I first saw them play
Malone was a high school freshman,
already too big for any bed,
14, a natural resource.
You have to learn not to
apologize, a form of vanity.
You flare up in the lane, exotic
anywhere else. You roll the ball
off fingers twice as long as your
girlfriend's. Great touch for a big man,
says some jerk. Now they're defunct
and Moses Malone, a boy wonder at 19,
rises at 20 from the St. Louis bench,
his pet of a body grown sullen
as fast as it grew up.

Something in you remembers every
time the ball left your fingertips
wrong and nothing the ball
can do in the air will change that.
You watch it set, stupid moon,
the way you watch yourself
in a recurring dream.
You never lose your touch
or forget how taxed bodies
go at the same pace they owe,
how brutally well the universe
works to be beautiful,
how we metabolize loss
as fast as we have to.

Thomas Meschery, a son of Russian immigrants, he became the first international player to play in an NBA All-Star Game in 1963.

An All-American success story. Born in China in 1938, he came to the U.S. with his parents after WW II. An All-American at Lowell High School, San Francisco, and St. Mary's College, Moraga, California. He was the youngest player to named a first team AAU All-American. NBA Star for ten seasons. Noted as one of the toughest players in the NBA. His jersey number has been retired by both St. Mary's and Golden State Warriors. Inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.

Tom has published two books of poetry, 'Over the Rim' and 'Nothing You Lose Can Be Replaced' and a fourth-coming book of verse, 'Some Men'. He was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame in 2000.